Shenfield Library’s transformation is coming on apace, with building work reaching a stage for me to be able to visit the site and have a look around last week.
The former building has been demolished, and a new library, offering everything the old one had and more, will open next year. The modernisation has been partially funded by the decision to build upwards, with nine one and two bedroom apartments being created on the floors above the library.
My visit coincided with the first flakes of snow of winter, and it was a cold climb up the temporary scaffold steps on the outside of the building to roof level. As every builder knows, the wrong weather always turns up as soon as the roof is going on, and this build has been no different. However, the team leading the build are confident work should be completed more or less on time for May, or may be June, next year.
Environmental concerns have been high in the planning of this building, and it will have an EPC rating of A or B. A lovely tree to the rear of the building has been retained, as have silver birches at the front, and these will be enhanced by a new fenced green space outside.
This new building will enhance Shenfield’s High Street, and bring in new housing which allows great accessibility to the Elizabeth Line and Greater Anglia train services running from the station, and to the many and varied independent shops on Shenfield’s main shopping road. There’s already a list of 50 people who’ve expressed an interest in buying one of the apartments, and I have no doubt the new properties will sell as soon as they hit the market.
The library, which is currently in temporary accommodation at Bishop’s Hill, will have a great new space, larger and brighter than the previous 1960s building, and I look forward to visiting it in 2024.
